Schools likely to hold on to buildings

The three school buildings to be vacated at the end of this school year are likely to be retained if a subcommittee recommendation is followed.

Patriot Staff

Subcommittee to recommend retaining

The three school buildings to be vacated at the end of this school year are likely to be retained if a subcommittee recommendation is followed. This week the reconvened School Facilities Advisory Committee decided that exploring other options for the buildings would be the soundest option right now. In a unanimous vote, the committee chose to recommend to the school committee that it look into the feasibility of leasing several or all of the vacant buildings, Cotuit, Marstons Mills and Osterville schools. The committee’s rationale was the projected turnaround in school enrollment and the potential need for another school building when that happens. “We have a lot of acres here,” said committee member and Cotuit Town Councilor Rick Barry. “We need to hold onto one of the parcels for the future.” “I think you’re right,” said local attorney and fellow committee member David Lawler, also a former school committee member. “At least one needs to be mothballed just in case.” How best to hold onto such a parcel, however, posed a dilemma. “It takes an awful lot of money to maintain a mothballed building,” said David Anthony, chief procurement officer for the Town of Barnstable. Anthony cited the former grade 5 building, now Pope John Paul II High School, and the former Osterville Bay Elementary School, which was declared surplus last summer, as examples. Another concern for the committee is the athletic fields adjacent to each. “To allow those fields to be turned into something else would be a sin,” said Lawler. “The fields themselves are priceless.” In Cotuit there is a petition circulating urging the town council and the school committee to take certain things into consideration regarding the property, including preserving the recreational facility adjacent to the building for village use. Regarding a possible sale of one or all of the buildings, Anthony cautioned that piecing up the land would negatively impact the value of the property. “I’m telling you now that people are going to come out on this issue if you decide to take those field away,” said Barry. “Do you have the intestinal fortitude to make that decision?” Last week Marstons Mills Town Councilor Jan Barton requested in her Patriot column suggestions on uses for the decommissioned buildings. She told the committee that she had received several responses, including one from Graham Silliman inquiring about establishing a Commonwealth charter school in the Marstons Mills location. Anthony said that he’d also been approached by a local caterer in need of a commercial kitchen for approximately six months beginning in October. The caterer inquired about using the Osterville school’s kitchen. According to Anthony, such leases could “offset the cost [maintaining] of one or more of these schools.” The Cotuit Fire District is also interested in the decommissioned Cotuit Elementary School building to meet its expansion needs. The district authorized an appraisal of the building with funds set aside two years ago for that purpose. The SFAC will present its recommendation to the school committee at the May 12 meeting, which begins at 7 p.m. in the main hearing room at town hall.